Steph Curry on his left ankle: “It feels a whole lot better than it did before Game 4, so that’s all I could ask for”

SAN ANTONIO-Stephen Curry strolled into Warriors’ shoot-around at the AT&T Center this morning with a smile on his face and no noticeable limp.

Easy to see that his left ankle was feeling a lot better than it did before Sunday’s Game 4… or during Game 4… and after Game 4.

Huge deal for Curry: He took another anti-inflammatory shot before Game 4, got through it, and isn’t worse for wear for tonight’s game. Huge, huge, huge deal and Curry was clearly relieved by the development.

As he said: “Mission accomplished.”

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So Curry said he should be good to go for tonight’s Game 5 here, including the pregame routine that he skipped on Sunday to get treatment.

—-STEPHEN CURRY partial gaggle transcript from shoot-around/

-Q: So how does the ankle feel today?

-CURRY: I feel good. Ready to go tonight. It feels a whole lot better than it did before Game 4, so that’s all I could ask for.

-Q: You said you just wanted it to feel like it did after Game 4. So it’s better than that?

-CURRY: I woke up yesterday, it wasn’t worse than it was before the game, which is a huge success. And then was able to capitalize on that with treatment the last day or so.

So mission accomplished, to be able to play Game 4 and not have any setbacks or kind of delay the healing process for tonight.

-Q: Did your ankle swell during the flight?

-CURRY: We prepared for it–had it wrapped up and almost like four times the size of my regular ankle with tape and wraps and compression and all that, just trying to make sure it doesn’t balloon up and we got through it.

-Q: You mentioned on Twitter that you’re thankful for a brace that you’re wearing. Is that new for your left ankle?

-CURRY: No, that’s the same one I’ve been wearing all year on my right, not my left though.

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-Q: Are you wearing it on your left now?

-CURRY: No, that’s the one I tried last series… (and took off). It takes a minute to get used to… I’m so used to it being on one foot and having that feel of it. To put both of them on, it was a little different.

-Q: Has there been any thought that, down the road, you might need the same surgery to your left ankle that you had on your right?

-CURRY: As of right now, no. I don’t think it’s been too much of a recurring issue, yet.

Obviously, I’ve had two minor sprains in the last two or three weeks, but I’m not really in that mind frame. And the doctors don’t think that’s a situation we need to talk about now or hopefully ever.

-Q: Do you ever think about your injury and maybe you don’t want to push it too hard?

-CURRY: Naw, I don’t think about it. The only time I thought about it really was last game because it was sore and it was hurting. When it’s feeling good and I don’t have any swelling, like I’ve been all season…

The 78 games I played, I never thought about it once, to try to protect it.

-Q: How many shots did you get up between Games 3 and 4–because you clearly didn’t practice the off-day…

-CURRY: Uhh, zero, before two-line layups at warm-up (minutes before Game 4).

-Q: Will you shoot now?

-CURRY: Yeah. I think it’s in good enough shape to do that, to be able to put a little bit of pounding on it, to warm up, get my legs back and keep my normal routine before games that I kind of broke last game. Gets you prepared for the game.

-Q: You’ve taken three injections in these playoffs. Is that it for you? No more?

-CURRY: I hope so.

-Q: You said that last time.

-CURRY: I mean, I hope so. I’m not going to take one tonight. So as long as I don’t have any more sprains or whatever, I should be good.

-Q: You mentioned after the last game that it’s interesting that you guys maybe played better here in San Antonio and the Spurs maybe played better in Oakland. What does that mean heading into this game?

-CURRY: It means nothing, really. Because every game is different. Being 2-2, a three-game series starting tonight.

We can’t expect that just us being here is going to result in us playing the way we did in Game 1, Game 2 and having those huge leads. We have to make it happen from the start.

We can’t come out flat like we did when we went home. And it’s a big opportunity for us that if we come out and play the way we’re supposed to, we should be all right.

-Q: Does it give you guys confidence knowing the way you played here in Games 1 and 2?

-CURRY: You have confidence for sure, but all that confidence doesn’t mean anything unless you make plays on the court. You can have all the confidence in the world but they can come out and take it away from you if you’re not focused and don’t stick to the game plan.

We have to continue to play smart basketball and fearless and just make plays.

-Q: What’s it like to watch Harrison Barnes take 26 shots like he did last game?

-CURRY: I didn’t even know until after the game. We saw the stat sheet. Just the way he played–he was being aggressive and trying to make plays.

He called them rhythm shots, which is kind of funny. But it kind of makes sense because nobody realizes he took that many until you look at the stat sheet.

Because he made some big shots and a lot of them were in the paint, missing three or four lay-ups and rebounding and that kind of deal.

But we like him being aggressive and not worrying about that. Everybody has to take what the defense is giving them and he was aggressive. So that was big for us.

-Q: Did you know he had that much rhythm?

-CURRY: (Laughs.) He had rhythm for days in that game. We’ll see what happens tonight, but we need him to be aggressive.

If Curry’s ankle allows him to cut off of it, the Warriors win; otherwise, they lose tonight IMO. His health looms large. Interesting to see whether Klay can regain his confident shooting touch in the Spurs’ arena.